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[14.03] The distribution of galaxy luminosities, stellar and baryonic masses, and galaxy sizes from SDSS and 2MASS SEDs

E. F. Bell (MPIA, Heidelberg), D. H. McIntosh (UMass), Z. Gyory (Eotvos University, Budapest, Hungary), I. Trujillo (MPIA, Heidelberg), N. Katz, M. D. Weinberg (UMass)

We use a large sample of galaxies from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to explore the distribution of galaxy luminosities, stellar and baryonic masses, and sizes in the local Universe. Assuming a universally-applicable stellar IMF, highlights include the following. i) The 'faint end slope' of the stellar mass function is steeper than -1.1, steeper than many recent estimates. ii) Between 1/2 and 3/4 of present-day stellar mass is in early-type galaxies. iii) Only 8 ±4% of baryons are in stars or cold gas (< 10⁴K) in galaxies, arguing for an overall low galaxy formation efficiency. iv) The width of the galaxy scale size distribution depends on passband, in the sense that the optical scale size distributions are narrower than those in the near-infrared.

This work is supported by the European Community's Human Potential Program under contract HPRN-CT-2002-00316, SISCO and JPL/NASA through the 2MASS core science projects.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
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